Julia Pearson

Branding for Julia Pearson, DeveloperIdentity Design and Landing Page

The challenge of creating an identity for Julia Pearson - Web Designer, Developer, Mac Supporter, Photographer - ultimately became the inspiration and solution for this communications system. Letter-pressed and edge-painted, the new identity system provides both framework and flexibility for her to capitalize on the breadth of her talents and services while still presenting a unified look and message for her brand. This system is carried through from her business cards to a landing page for her upcoming website.

SmartLiving360

SmartLiving 360 is an innovative business taking on the future of senior housing, healthcare and wellness as a movement for change. They came to us for guidance on repositioning and rebranding the entire enterprise to leverage their expertise in many different aspects of the field of longevity. Matter suggested bringing all three arms of the business - Consulting, Development and Thought Leadership - under one umbrella brand, SmartLiving 360. Using animated infographics, interactive case studies, a bold, inviting color palette and strategic messaging, the website and branding work to engage a wide audience - including potential residents, development partners, media opportunities and consulting businesses - to help visitors find information (and inspiration) in SmartLiving 360’s experience, leadership and vision.

Present Company

This brand was created for a client that wanted to change the name and positioning of their existing architecture firm. Matter helped this client name, identify and create a whole new brand that communicated who they are at the core - an architecture firm that would listen to, be present for, and be a partner to their clients every step of the way. Presco!

Flow

Branding for Flow, A Nonprofit in Baltimore CityLogo and Branding

This versatile logo was created for Flow, a nonprofit that empowers at-risk Baltimore City kids, using rap music to tell their own personal stories in a creative and powerful way. This project had two challenges - first, and foremost, to appeal to the kids and young adults that it represented. It should be wearable, identifiable and able to live in the world in a variety of formats - pictured here, etched into a wall, spray painted on a post, a pattern for a poster. Secondly, it should communicate the seriousness and viability of this endeavor to investors and donors. The logo was extremely well received by both audiences and is living a full life on t-shirts, hats, cd covers and soon to be live on their website.

Make Remington

The goal of this campaign was two-fold: to reach out to the most creative, large and small businesses in order to lease new and repurposed retail spaces, and to develop a new identity for one of Baltimore's most loved and oldest post-industrial neighborhoods. This campaign accomplished both by engaging the existing community of retailers, restauranteurs and nonprofits as well as the neighborhood's forward-thinking developer, Seawall Development, in the creative process. The result was a marketing campaign that spoke to both current and prospective tenants, that honored the past, while celebrating the future, that communicated the diverse and dynamic community Remington is today and invited inspired entrepreneurs all over the world to be a part of this great neighborhood's future. In the first 24 hours that this campaign went live Seawall received 1,500 responses to the call to action.

Anne Donley, Copywriter

Logo Design

This simple, but to-the-point, logo was created for Anne Donley, a Baltimore copywriter who has worked together with Matter on a number of web and print projects, including the Union Mill and Miller's Court websites and a brochure for the Baltimore City Energy Office. Anne has a classic, unfettered way with words, so this logo seemed like the perfect way to communicate that.

Organic Chemistry

From the naming and logo to the packaging design, website and Instagram presence, we created a fully scaleable brand to launch this unique product line into professional salons nationwide. To set this line apart from other organic haircare brands, we leveraged the scientific basis on which all of their products are formulated. Every ingredient in Organic Chemistry products is there for a purpose - to benefit the long-term health of your hair and scalp. This straight-forward approach and honest communication of product ingredients and benefits, paired with the company's commitment to using the cleanest, most ethically-sourced ingredients is what the Organic Chemistry brand is about. Check out the new website here:

Public Works Ale

This client came to Matter knowing that they wanted to make great beer, and asked us to take the lead on communicating this one simple, but passionate dream. From naming the company and creating the brand to logo design, package design and copywriting on all marketing materials, including a beautiful and dynamic website, this project went from dream to reality, in less than a year. Matter also advised PWA on their giving-back program. Public Works Ale decided to donate a percentage of their profits to a job training program in Baltimore City. Because a brand is what you do, not just what you look like.

JubileeBaltimore

Website strategy, design & development , logo design and identity

Jubilee Baltimore is a development company that not only develops urban real estate, but rebuilds neighborhoods through community organization, strong leadership and an holistic approach to urban planning. Matter created this playful, bright, yet sophisticated identity and website for this company to communicate the mission of this organization - to integrate and organize communities through architecture and urban planning.

Baltimore Green Network

This unique gate-fold brochure with illustrated map folded out to contain vital information and call-to-action about the Baltimore City's greening initiative. When fully opened and presented flat, it also doubled as a 16 x 16 inch poster of the custom illustrated map of Baltimore, detailing the City's plan to revitalize, create and connect green spaces throughout Baltimore City. A blank space was left on the back of the brochure for variable information on future meeting dates and locations to make this brochure useful for all upcoming community meetings around this initiative.

Sugar Coates

Branding for Sugar Coates BakeryLogo Design, Letterhead and Packaging

This logo design for a local, independently-owned baker, Sophie Coates, was created to work on a number of different affordable packaging solutions and media applications. From digitally printed stickers for pastry cartons to a hand stamp for paper bags to an Instagram brand, the design was created to be both beautiful and versatile.

Miller's Square

Matter created this brand experience - including a logo, tagline, color palette, website, custom illustrations, street banners, and printed material - for Seawall Development's Miller's Square. Miller's Square is yet another one of Seawall's success stories, not only creating beautiful, affordable, green housing for Baltimore City school teachers, but creating a wave of change throughout the city by way of economic, environmental and socially responsible development. Visit the website here:

Shine Creative

We created this meaningful brand strategy for Shine Creative, a creative firm that tells brand stories through beautifully crafted moving image. The logo, tagline and visual strategy were all created to communicate the idea of storytelling as a multi-faceted medium that brings light and life to a brand's story. Shine and Matter go way back, as creative partners, and have even worked together on various projects.

Co-Lab Baltimore

Branding for Co-LabLogo Design, Naming, Website

This logo and identity system was created for Baltimore's Co_Lab, a beautiful, modern co-working space in the center of Baltimore City. The B in the logo becomes a shorthand for the logo, used as a quick identifier on signage for the front of the building. The orange color also plays a prominent role in the design of the building, inside and out. Along with this concise identity system, Matter also designed Co_Lab's new website:

Baltimore Montessori Public

Logo Design for BMPCSLogo, Color Palette

Baltimore Montessori Public Charter School wanted to simplify its name and come up with a new logo to better communicate the school's guiding principles. Matter created this new logo that expressed the foundation of Montessori education - to teach by following the cues of the child, to learn by doing, and that success is about the well-being of the entire community, not just the individual.

WebbMason Marketing

Matter developed this identity system for WebbMason Marketing as they made their transition from a print house to a full-scale marketing agency. Their rebranding called for a way to communicate, to old and new clients, the breadth of their services and their new focus on design as well as data science, web development and marketing services. Matter created a pocket folder for 6 individual service brochures and one overall capabilities brochure. This communication system also set the design direction for the new website and subsequent marketing materials.

Society of Bedside Medicine

We created this logo system and website for Society of Bedside Medicine, a global community of physicians and educators dedicated to improving physical examination and diagnostic skills. This fully functional membership website includes member-exclusive pages as well as public pages to encourage viewers to become members, donate and support the mission of the organization as well as receive exclusive content. Integration with their social media pages is also part of the site's function, as well as a persistent call for donations.

Sprout, An Organic Salon

Sprout Salon has partnered with Matter since the shop's inception in 2005. For this forward-thinking new business Matter created a simple, classic, inviting print and online brand that communicates the salon's unyielding commitment to environmental sustainability as well as their highly modern sensibility. As a brand consultant, we helped establish the salon's original look and feel, we also consulted on interior fixtures, color and materials palette, as well as environmentally responsible practices, including printing on 100% recycled papers with vegetable-based inks. In 2013 and 2014, we strategized and implemented Sprout's ad campaign, "Natural Beauty", to showcase the diversity of individual style in their clientele and to promote the breadth of talent in Sprout's stylists and their steadfast commitment to organic living. Matter continues to partner with Sprout today to keep the brand fresh and modern through social media, photoshoots, and web presence.

Good Energy Gels

Good Energy Gels is an organic energy gel for athletes and health enthusiasts. It's differentiator is it's incredibly simple list of only 4 ingredients and it's delicious taste and texture. The key to creating an efficient and effective brand for this product was letting the product speak for itself. From the naming to the logo and package design, simplicity and authenticity were essential elements of the communication system. Like the product itself, the logo and illustrations are handmade. The messaging is simple and straight-forward. This is a brand and product you can trust.

Baltimore City Energy Office

Branding for BCEOLogo, Brochure, Tagline, Copywriting

Matter has worked with various city agencies to create brands and marketing campaigns that inspire action. For BCEO, we created a striking new logo that communicates that energy is something that is essential to our every day existence, but invisible. The negative space "B" is powerful and understated, just like the product itself. The brochure points to an interactive graphic website that is currently in the works and educates consumers on how to save energy in their homes, businesses and everyday activities.

Griffon Station

Griffon Station is an historic Eastside Baltimore neighborhood that has been given new life with the development of LEED-certified row homes available at affordable prices, an urban forest, and a bustling community nonprofit center. We created this full scale brand for the neighborhood that included naming, logo, custom illustrations, a dynamic website, and iconography system.

Alma Cocina Latina

Matter created this sophisticated, simple, but every mutable branding system for Venezuelan restaurant Alma Cocina Latina. At the heart of the look and feel of this restaurant's branding is the exquisite food, photographed by owner of Alma Cocina Latina, Irena Stein. Because each dish is created to be a rich experience in contrasting flavor and texture, the visual communications for Alma needed to be so simple and sophisticated, allowing the experience of the food to shine through. Visit the website here.

In 2010, Matter applied for a Sappi: Ideas the Matter grant with TreeBaltimore as our nonprofit partner. The Ideas that Matter grant awards close to a million dollars each year for design firms who partner with nonprofits to create innovative marketing campaigns that inspire positive change in the world. Matter was one of 12 North American firms to receive the grant in 2010. Over the next 12 months, we created this inspiring and accessible campaign that appeared on buses and bus shelters, in local print publications, on street banners, t-shirts, door hangers, magnets, brochures, flyers and more. With this highly visible campaign, TreeBaltimore was able to mobilize Baltimore City residents, business owners and schools to plant and care for more than 20,000 trees in dense urban areas. The effect that these trees have on air quality, utility bills, property values and the overall economic and environmental health of the city continues to grow as the trees mature.

Patrick & Tracy Invitation

Wedding Invitation Package6-piece wedding invitation package

Designed for a rustic wedding in Aspen, Colorado, this wedding invite package was letter-pressed on double-ply cotton rag paper, edge-painted with sparkly gold ink and placed inside a wood-grain envelope with a monogrammed band to pull it all together. Lots of texture and fine detail was offset by the warmth of the metallic gold ink and simplicity of the layout and hand-drawn elements.

KeyTech

This brochure was designed for a medical engineering company, as a promotional brochure to be handed out at trade shows and events. Using a 3-D, interactive format to tell the client's story seemed a natural way to communicate KeyTech's mission, "we transform ideas into valuable technology products". The brochures were arranged into giant, multi-panel structures at the trade show to show off KeyTech's engineering expertise (of course!), as well as the playful, creative spirit which sets this company apart.

Bar Mitzvah Invite

This three-part invitation was letter-pressed on black cotton rag with silver ink, by Almanac Industries. The effect, sophisticated and inviting, was just right for this Bar-Miztvah, which brought together traditional Jewish rituals with modern sensibilities in a most meaningful way.